old Bamboo rod's.

[hunter1]

Took my wife to our local antique store, I found 6.5 to 7' bamboo rod, three pieces. Every section was good with no curves. There was no markings on the rod, rod looks like it has been refinished. Chrome ferruls were clean. cork looked very clean and reel seat was the same. It only had a loose tread on one of the guides. I flexed each section to see if the bamboo was split, every thing looked all right. I know it's not a custom rod, But not knowing the name I didn't know if it was worth the price of $60.00. That also includes a O.C fly reel that's shot. What do you all think, about the rod . :-?

 

[gfen]

hunter1 wrote:
I didn't know if it was worth the price of $60.00.

Only you can decide if you've got something better for $60 or not.

If you're asking if it's an investment; it's not.

If you're asking if it's going to be a magical fishing implement, probably not.

However, it might be nice enough to try if you decide that you want to spend $60 on something that will likely either turn out to be a floppy noodle or a club, with no markings there's really no way to tell, either. Even though the "experts" can usually issue a solid guess as to it's make based on things like reel seat and thread wrappings, that doesn't mean it's not worthless. Also, do all three sections match in length? If one's short, that one's been broken.

So, go ahead. Spend $60 if you have it available. If it's great, you win. If it's not, don't judge the experience of using a bamboo rod around an unmarked, likely Herter's (et al) kit, rod that has no provenence.

As per all these threads, it's probably a 6wt. Or a 7.

 

[hunter1]

Thank's , I'll look at it Tuesday. Then I'll decide.

 

[JohnPowers]

My limited experience was that the cheaper "mass produced" rods showed it very clearly in the reel seat. Unless it was an authentic rod from one of the biggies I'd pass it by. If you've Been casting graphite it's likely you'd fall asleep waiting for the noodle to load.

 

[redietz]

A 7' cane rod is a desirable length. Even lower end rods at that length are almost always worth than $60. (E.g. rods that might not be worth $60 in a 9' length might go for $200 or more on flea-bay.) Personally, I'd take the chance.

The only thing that would make me think you're looking at a low-end rod is the "chrome ferrules". Higher end rods used nickel-silver for ferrules.

 

[SteveG]

If it was me, I'd bring a reel or two and ask to take it for a test drive. Could be a nice small stream rod.

 

[StreamBottom]

What gfen said plus

Take some pics of the reel seat and ferrules and go here

http://classicflyrodforum.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=69

 

[AkDan76]

I'd do exactly what Steve has mentioned if you can test cast it!

I'm a new boo builder so take this with a grain, I'm working under a fairly local guy (lives up here anyways but not close) who makes his living doing this. The database I have has HUNDREDS (800 plus) of tapers ranging from a midge 5' rod up to full size spey rods. They are not all noodles, some don't come close!

The only difference in boo is overall weight.

They are however a blast to cast. They are not always as slow as you'd think. I'm limited to having handled a handful of rods ranging from a 7wt down to a 1' piece 3 wt.

The initial hard part is getting over the fact its a shorter rod, I started short and got away from them over the last 20 years. I do like a shorter rod, but found a longer rod for what I do up here was more beneficial. After my trip south I have my eyes on a 5'6" 5wt and a couple 7 and 7'6" 4 wts for next spring, if I can get them done in time.


If its sound, 60bucks is cheap! If not you could always buy a blank and build it yourself. Blanks start around 150 bucks. Other than the ferrules the rest is basic rod building skills anyone can build one.



One word of caution is find someone locally who can look at it! The area under the ferrules are notorious for breaking. Boo needs to be stored dry. If it sat wet, it will likely break right before/after the ferrules. My understanding of it is the water gets under the wraps under the ferrule or down the water plug (female ferrule if it has a plug some don't) and rots the cane. My first rod a older montague broke first fish. it came with hefty price tag of free and has a 2nd tip so I wasn't out anything. That and I can rebuild a new tip if I get the itch. if you find your tip isn't full length if you do figure the taper out, you could always get someone to build a new tip section for it. If it has two tips you can easily get a new tip made.

if you DO buy and really like it I'd HIGHLY recommend having it MIc'd in case something happens you can have it reproduced!

 

[KeithS]

I think I may know the shop you were in. Sounds way too familiar Was this rod upstairs, leaning in a corner?

 

[FarmerDave]

A few flags pop up right away with this.

3 piece, 6.5 or 7 foot is the first flag that popped up. Unless you mean two piece with extra tip. I'd be a little bit skeptical. But it could be a travel rod I guess.

"Chrome" guides is another that says low quality to me.

Gfen gave excellent advice.

Someone said that all of them in that length are worth at least $60. Likely true if it was originally that length.

If it is as you described and in that good of shape, and had not been shortened, and is indeed a travel rod, then I might offer them $40 or $50. Sounds pretty decent. On the other hand, I haven't seen a bamboo fly rod at an antique store that wasn't overpriced.

 

[poopdeck]

Not knowing anything more about the rod, I would say you can get it for a lot less. Antique shops buy their crap at auctions. I go to auctions and see bamboo rods sell for next to nothing rather routinely. Its not a complete rod if it does not have the extra tip end. I would pass.

 

[redietz]

Some other things to look for:

1) When you say 3 piece rod, is it a two piece rod with an extra tip (2/2) or a three piece rod without an extra tip (3/1). If the latter, the missing section drops the value of the rod. Possibly still worth $60 if otherwise good.

2) Are all sections the same length? If not, pass.

3) Was is cut down from larger rod? Some people will take the top two sections of a 9 foot rod and make a 6 foot rod. If that's the case, again, pass.

4) If the rod was originally 7 feet, it's probably either a 4 or 5 weight.

 

[AkDan76]

Maybe a 4-5. There's too many tapers to discern taper by length !

I still say cast it! That will be your only real quality control factor. Even modded out old so-so rods can become fantastic rods with a bit of tweaking! Though for the effort and likely hood of breaking a strip few do it. It's not uncommon either! It's easier to start from scratch.

 

[FarmerDave]

poopdeck wrote:
Not knowing anything more about the rod, I would say you can get it for a lot less. Antique shops buy their crap at auctions. I go to auctions and see bamboo rods sell for next to nothing rather routinely. Its not a complete rod if it does not have the extra tip end. I would pass.

If it is an antique store that does consignments, and it seems many do this now, then they might not be able to drop the price all that much.

But I must ask that you stop spot burning the estate auctions.;-)

I once bought a bundle of rods from an estate sale for $10. No bamboo in it, but there were a couple of vintage glass fly rods. Before I left, someone offered me $10 for one of the old bait casting rods, and it wasn't even one of the desirable ones. Well, desirable to him, but not in general. I think he said he either used that one as a kid, or used one like it. So essentially I got the bundle for free. I would have let him have it for $5 if he had asked.;-)

Sold a few more on Ebay including an old Wonderod in near mint condition and an early Montague glass rod.

Estate auctions are hit and miss. Things like fishing rods and tackle often go cheap, but on occasion they go for big bucks. It only takes two people interested to drive up the price.

 

[sandfly]

send me the OC reel, I can use the parts

 

[poopdeck]

One thing about auctions is the auction people know who to call to come to the auctions. If it was a decent rod, a rod builder/collector/reseller would have that rod. The fact that its in an antique shop is a good indication it's junk, Assuming it was purchased at an auction. But, then again, if this rod is the exception you could be the big winner.

Yes Dave sometimes you win and sometimes somebody pays way more then expected. I'm gonna have to take a longer look at bamboo rods in the future. I'm always up to triple my money.

 

[troutfanatic]

Post a few pics as others mentioned already. I may be able to tell if you have a deal or not. If the rod is fully functional, I'd say yes. Cheaper rods had a problem with ferrules cracking, look for that. Is the OC reel still functional yet looking like sh!te?

Run a few searches on the ebays and see what they have going on.

I restore or rebuild a few boos a year. at worst, you are buying a blank to build a new rod on.

 

[gfen]

troutfanatic wrote:
at worst, you are buying a blank to build a new rod on.

At worst you're buying a $60 tomato stake.

Face it, the likely hood of this being a hidden treasure is nil; if it was someone else would've already bought it. Ebay and the Internet has changed the way people buy and sell, there are no more treasures hidden in the back of antique shops or Hardy Perfects sitting at garage sales.

It's not a 4wt, it's not a 5wt. It's going to be an old bass taper rod. It's not 7' long because it's some sort of mythical brookie trickle rod from the dawn of time, it's 7' long because its a heavy club and if it were any longer your arm would fall off.

There's a reason it's sitting in some crappy antique shop, and it's not because it fell off the back of HL Leonard's model T.

Now, all that aside, if $60 isn't a problem and you want to try it, go for it. Take it home, stick a reel on it and go cast a 7wt line in your backyard. Maybe you'll get it, and you'll buy something worthwhile, or maybe you'll stick it on your wall... but don't get your hopes up that this is an investment.

At most, it'll be fun. At worst, it'll be $60 wasted bucks.

 

[troutfanatic]

I think I pretty much said the same thing.

And I have built some nice rods out of "junk" I bought at estate sales and ebay. I have turned 25.00 Montagues into 150.00 resales.

I found a Granger at a yard sale in 2007, which was in exceptional condition. I resold it as is and earned enough to buy a Sage. I paid 50.00 for for the boo.

There are still deals out there, you have to be willing to dig for them.

 

[gfen]

No, you suggested it was, at worst, a "blank to build a new rod on." It's not. If it's worthless in it's current form, it's worthless in whatever form you would make it.

If one was going to spend 60 on a blank they could do alot worse than any number of cheap Chinese ebay blanks rather than a 70 year old clapped out production bass rod.

There is no magic upside to this thing. No reason to attempt to spin it as anything but a $60 gamble against the house.